


Alternate Universe

by fryingpanofdoomwrites



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: F/M, Hybrid AU, It's Achievement Hunter..., Language, M/M, Many things change, Multi, Multiple Universes, Tags do not apply to all chapters, street rat!Michael, what do you expect?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-20
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-05 10:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1815076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fryingpanofdoomwrites/pseuds/fryingpanofdoomwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Achievement Hunters find themselves in a peculiar situation after playing a new game.  What kind of situation you ask? Well, the kind were you are trapped in different universes, very similar yet very different from your own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

It was a normal day in the office, Michael and Gavin were bickering, Geoff was downing his third beer, and Ray and Ryan were setting up for a Let’s play of a new game that Jack went to pick up.

The game was called Alternate Universe. The player created a character and set out to find the different universes. Some would be very close to the original, like everyone with red hair was now a brunette, while others were drastically different like the world never moved from Pangaea and all people looked alike.

Many were calling it a knock off of BioShock Infinite’s concept or fanfiction in game form, but many were excited for it as well, and when the developers emailed Achievement Hunter, giving the group first dips on game play, Burnie and Matt practically forced Geoff to say yes. So the six guys were piled into the office, now with characters loaded, and ready to start the game.

“Ready boys?” Geoff said as he pressed start.

**Welcome Achievement Hunter to Alternate Universe To acclimate you to the system, we will start in the Universe that you are most familiar with.**

“This is interesting…” Ray said as the screen loaded into an aerial view of the office, with each of the character at their respective desks, Ryan was even on the couch.

**This is the Achievement Hunter Office, but what would happen if you walked through a door to an Alternate Universe?**

The door to the office in the game opened, and the screen moved to show a row of seven doors.

**Each of these doors will lead to a world very much like your own, but very different at the same time.**

**Choose wisely.**

“This game is freaky.” Jack said, looking around the room.

“And you all thought I was crazy.” Ryan muttered.

“Do we all pick, or just Geoff since he’s the host?” Michael asked.

“I have a prompt, so might as well start from the beginning.” Geoff moved the glowing curser on the screen to the first door, and pressed A. The screen turned black then they were back in the office, except their characters looked much different.

“What! I have wings!” Gavin said, zooming the camera to get a closer look at the tawny wings and tail that were now on his characters back.

Each of the characters had some sort of animal trait.

“Nice horns Geoff Ram-say!” Ray snickered, whispering a ‘got em’ to himself.

“Shut up Ray-bbit!” This pun didn’t work as well, but still gained a few laughs from the others in the room.

“Hey Ryan, feel bad about keeping Edgar in the hole now?” Michael said, moving his character closer to the bovine hybrid on the screen.

“Well, can’t say he didn’t have it coming, “ Ryan chuckled, “But hey, at least I’m not a kitty cat.” Michael was hoping the others hadn’t noticed the ears and tail of his character.

“Aw! Micool! You’re cute, bet Lindsay would love it!” Gavin said, nudging the man next to him.

“Shut up! What about Jack, he’s a cat too!”

“Actually, I’m a lion. Mane and all.” The teasing continued for the rest of the day. The boys explored the sandbox like world, trying to ignore how eerily it looked like Austin and their office. Suddenly, just as Gavin had climbed to the top of the building to try and fly, the game turned black.

**Thank you for participating in Day 1. To continue through the doors come back in 48 hours.**

“There’s a time limit on this game? It just keeps getting weirder.” Ray muttered, shutting of the recording and starting to convert the file.

“Well, we’ll pick it back up in a couple days.” Geoff said, starching and finishing his beer. The day went on normally, recording and editing other videos before all parties decided to end the day and head home.

Unbeknownst to them, all six of them went to bed with pain, in their head and backs. In the morning, Gavin being an early riser on days when not hung-over, was the first to notice something weird. His shoulders, though he slept fine, were extremely sore. The Brit sat up groaning, stretching his neck and shoulders. Then he noticed his bed was covered in feathers, he didn’t notice that they were tawny, and not white like his pillows, “Musta busted a pillow…” He said to himself before trudging to the tiny bathroom and clicking on the light.

He stopped. Reflected in the mirror, was himself, with a pair of tawny wings, partially folded again his back.


	2. Chapter 1

Gavin was sure that he woke the world with his scream as he jumped back and tripped over some dirty clothes, falling into the bathtub. He groaned, wings flared out naturally so they weren’t squished under his body, but he was still in pain.

“Gavin, you okay?” He could hear Griffon outside the small guesthouse in the Ramsey’s backyard, “I’m coming in.” She warned before he heard the door and moved to the bathroom.

“Gavin, hunny, did you trip?” Gavin couldn’t focus on her question as his eyes were focused on the pair of white-grey wings tucked against her back.

“You have them too!” He squawked out, hand flying to his mouth as he realized his squawk actually sounded like a bird squawk.

“Gavin, did you hit your head? Drink too much last night?” Griffon started to help him up, minding his wings and tail.

Tail?!

And sure enough, sticking out the back of his pants was a long, and obnoxious tail, even for him.

When Ray woke up, he knew something was wrong. It felt like two lives were living inside his head. He felt his ears fall back against his head but his hands covered the sides of his head where human ears would be. Then suddenly it stopped. His head stopped pounded and there was silence. He could think again. It was weird; he could pick a universe in his head and look at his memories. Ray jumped about a foot in the air when his cell phone buzzed.

“Hello?” Ray asked quietly, putting the phone on speaker.

“Ray! What the fuck is going on!” Michael’s voice sound through the speaker.

“I think we’re in an alternate universe. Just like the game.” Ray said.

“How the fuck can they do that! This is not fucking normal!” Michael continued to scream into the phone, slamming things in the background and through the ceiling.

“I’m coming upstairs. Be there in a couple seconds.” Ray literally hopped up the steps and knocked on Michael’s door. The New Jersey man opened the door and pulled Ray inside.

“I’m a fucking cat Ray!” Michael said pacing around his apartment.

“Well, I’m a rabbit,” Ray said, feeling his foot start to thump, “Do you have both sets of memories? Or is that just me?” When Michael gave a confused look, Ray assumed it was just him.

“You remember both universes?”

“Yeah. It hurt like hell both of them going through my head, but I got it now. In this world, people are born as hybrids. It’s just apart of life.”

Michael sat down on his couch, “I didn’t remember anything about this world, and when I saw Lindsay this morning, who is a huskie by the way, I’m guessing instincts took over and I bolted out of the room. She left, figured I forgot a deadline or something.”

“When your memories kick in, it’s a lot easier to control.” Ray said, fighting the urge to thump his foot, “Easier, but not entirely possible, I guess because we’re not from here.”

“We need to get to the office. Talk to the others about this.” Michael got up, grabbing a couple things and heading out the door, Ray following. They walked to the office, trying to avoid looks from others as they passed.

“Gavin! Stop that!” The cat and rabbit turned to see the Brit up a tree, and Geoff, with a set of pretty big ram horns spiraling around his head, fussing.

“I’m sorry! It just happened! I don’t know how to get down!” Gavin squawked, looking down at the ram.

“Geoff, Gavin!” Ray called out, hopping over to them as Michael followed a little slower. “Ray, Micool!” Gavin smiled, jumping down from the tree, wings flying out to help him float to the ground.

“Oh, you’ll jump down for them!” Geoff said, throwing his arms up.

“This world is so weird! I don’t know how to function with these things.” Gavin said, pointing at his wings.

“I don’t know about you all, but I’ve got both sets of memories. It’s weird but helps with the instincts a bit.” Ray glanced at Michael, who wasn’t looking at any of them, hands balled in fists, arms shaking from holding himself back.

“Michael, don’t do anything you’ll regret.” Ray said, hoping Geoff would catch on, to help restrain him if necessary.

“Gavin, don’t run, “ Geoff said, “You’ll make him want to chase you more.” Gavin hadn’t caught on to the looks that Geoff and Ray were sending the cat and bird, but he could feel his wings start to twitch and his head beat faster as he and Michael continued to stand there.

“What are you all doing?” The four head turned to see Burnie, who was a bison, walking over to them.

“We’re talking about an RT Life we were thinking about doing.” Geoff said quickly, scratching one of his horns. “Well talk about it in the office, yeah? Those games won’t play themselves.” Burnie said, not noticed how stiff Gavin was or how Ray was holding one of Michael’s wrists. On their way into the office, besides Geoff running into a few door jams, Gavin’s wings knocking over several things and Michael fighting the urge to tackle Gavin, everything was going fine. Jack was in the office, trying to untangle his headphones from his mane.

“So, someone go get Ryan so we can talk.” Geoff muttered, falling into his chair and reaching for his bottle of liquor.

“I’ll go!” Gavin said before bolting from the room, Michael fighting every urge in his body to give chase.

“This is not fun! Fuck!” Michael yelled, kicking the couch.

“At least you don’t have a mass of hair around your head cub.” Jack said. He and Michael just looked at each other confused.

“You call him that all the time by the way.” Ray said to Jack.

“How would you know?” Ryan said as he sidestepped through the door into the small room. His horns were too long to walk straight in. Gavin followed behind and shut the door.

“When I woke up, I had a splitting headache, like my brain was being pulled in two. I think it was the two sets of memories trying to organize in my head.” Ray said, trying to explain how he felt that morning, “I have this universe’s memories as well as our owns.”

“But why don’t we all have the memories?” Jack asked.

“Maybe it’s an age thing?” Gavin said rubbing the side of his head, “Because I can feel a headache coming on.” And Gavin was right because a few minutes later he was kneeling on the floor, hands gripping into his hair, teeth clicking together as his wings shielded his body, and just as quickly as it started, it stopped and in the Brits head were two sets of memories.

Ray helped him sit up, “Got it now Vav?”

“Yeah X-Ray. We’re good.” Gavin said, taking a swig of his water bottle, “It’s weird, having two sets of memories in your head.”

“So what do we do? Because we have about two days of being stuck in this universe before we can go anywhere else.” Geoff said, pulling up the game, and was given a count down timer.

“What else could be through those doors?” Ryan asked from his couch.

“I know a place we could find out.” Ray said, moving to Michael’s chair as his desk was in the center of everyone’s view and logged onto tumblr. He scrolled in the Achievement Hunter and Rooster Teeth tags for a while, with the others standing behind him.

“Well?” Gavin asked from his own chair. “From what I can tell, the most popular AUs include Zombie apocalypse, something called the RT Baby AU, Minecraft King AU, the non-hybrid AU, which I guess would be the hybrid AU we’re in now, AH OT6 and Genderbend then there’s also a lot of stuff for the Mavinsay relationship.”

“What the fuck is Mavinsay?” Michael said, glaring at the screen.

“Well…” Ray scrolled a little bit before clicking on a fan drawing. It was Michael, Lindsay and Gavin, all hybrids, and it was interesting. Michael was in between Lindsay and Gavin; he was kissing Lindsay, while Gavin was kissing his neck, hands were all over each other.

“Damn.” Ryan said, “So, how long has this been going on?” Michael was speechless.

“I think you broke him,” Jack said, waving his hand in front of Michael’s face.

“Um, Michael, just so you know, I’m not into you or Lindsay like that. Like, you’re my boi and all but-“ Gavin was cut off by Geoff’s hand, noticing that the cat hybrid was starting to shake, gripping very tightly the back of his chair. But Michael wasn’t shaking from the picture, pain had started to radiate through his head, he could feel his knees starting to give out and he sat back on the ground a bit harder than he would have liked. His hands pulled on his curls, head between his knees, trying to make the pain stop, and it did just that.

“This is freaky shit.” Michael said, sitting up straighter, with shaky breath. Jack offered a hand, and helped the younger man up off the floor.

“It’s looks like the older you are, the longer it takes to get your memories of this universe, which means Geoff might not get his until right before we leave,” Ryan said, “And at least for this universe, control over the animal parts.”

“Basically, a Gent doesn’t go anywhere without a Lad today.” Geoff said, sitting back down at his desk. The day went on kinda normally, besides the confusion on how to use headphones when you don’t have human ears, or horns, and how to not jump a foot in the air when Jack yawns and roars at the same time, or how not to rip out Gavin’s feathers, or to not cat nap when the suns your ears just right, yeah, normal wasn’t the right word at all. But the day was going until lunchtime hit.

“Do we eat people food?” Jack asked as he stomach growled.

“You have preferences when it comes to food, but it’s human. You do enjoy your red meat though.” Gavin answered, pulling off his headphones.

“But Geoff does eat his beer cans every now and then.” Ray said, trying to stop his nose from twitching and foot from thumping.

“So that’s why I’ve been craving a beer.” The rom hybrid said to him self.

“Well, I’m starving! Who’s up for Jersey Mike’s?” Michael said standing up from his desk.

“Would that be wise?” Ryan said from the couch, he had his laptop and was working on that because the group was waiting for his memories to kick in and didn’t want him in the warehouse when it happened.

“Well, I don’t know. I know they know mine and Lindsay’s order there, so pick something!”

“I’ll go with him, just text us what you want.” Geoff said, standing to follow the cat hybrid out of the office. The ride there and back was pretty uneventful, minus Geoff bumping his horns into his car, and the door at the restaurant, and his car again, and the office door…twice.

“Anything new?” Geoff asked as he walking into the office, missing the door this time.

“Not really, just editing and trying not to freak out.” Ray said, nose twitching at the smell of food.

“That’s good news…” The Gent said, tossing out sandwiches.

“Guys, I just thought of something…”

“What Gavin?” Ryan said, not looking up from his laptop.

“What will happen when we leave this universe? Like, will we remember this, or will we forget our original selves?”

There was silence.

“Why do you have to be such a downer jackass!”


	3. Chapter 2

“But really though? Will we remember this universes’ memories and not our own or will we remember them?” Gavin said, playing with a piece of lettuce that fell off his sandwich.

“Who knows? We’ll take it as it comes.” Geoff said, puling the tab off of his beer can and putting it into his mouth.

“Anyway, we need to record some content-“ The room jumped when Jack let out a roar of what looked like pain. His fingers were threaded into his name, pulling on the hair and low rumbling escaped through his clenched teeth. After a minute, his body relaxed, shoulders slumping and head hitting the desk with a soft thump.

“Ouch.” He said softly, sitting up and looking at the others.

“It’s a bitch, ain’t it?” Michael said, ears still pressed against his head.

“Yeah. We might as well hold off on recording for a bit. Ryan should be getting his memories soon.” But as the day went on, Ryan didn’t gain his memories. They were all getting ready to leave, and made Ryan promised to text them when he got home and to keep them informed. So Ryan did, no memories but in the morning the text came.

“Got them in the shower.” That made Geoff on edge. His memories should be happening later that day, but the timer also ran out at the end of the day as well; the six of them needed to talk. When all six of the AH crew were finally in the office, the question was brought up.

“Do we want to stay here or continue on in the game to get home?” Geoff asked. There was silence.

“We don’t know what will happen when we change universes.” Ray said slowly, crossing his legs to keep his foot from thumping on the ground.

“There are seven universes total, right? And there are several possibilities on what could happen with our memories in them. We could forget the memories from our universe and keep the ones from this one, and so on and so forth.” Ryan said, typing at his laptop.

“Or we could keep all our memories and just keep gaining them.” Ray countered.

“Or, we keep our first memories and for each universe as we pass through.” Jack said, leaning back in his chair, running a hand through his mane. The debate continued on words, each man going back and forth with whether or not they should leave now or stay a couple days more.

“If we do move on, how will we be able to track our progress? Like will the game make sure we move on to universes? Or will we be able to go back to our own right now?” Michael asked quietly, resting his chin against his knee that he pulled against his chest.

“Well, the timer runs out in two hours. I’ll pull up the game then, and we’ll see what we can do,” Geoff said, “Until then, let’s get some work done.”

So they set up their stuff, recorded a few videos, got some editing done, and as the hours past, the crew forgot about the game, falling into their natural routine. At least until Geoff had crawled into bed with his wife, and was suddenly stuck with pain to the center of his head.

“Geoff, are you okay?” Griffon was a light sleep; she rolled over, touching his shoulder, feeling him tense under her light touch.

“Fucking-fucking hurts!” Geoff hissed, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close to him, head resting against her chest. One of her wings, wrapped around him as a she gently stroked the hair around his horns. The pain felt like it lasted for hours, but it was only about two minutes before Geoff’s body started to relax.

“Bastards.” Geoff mumbled against Griffon’s shoulder as he shifted his position in the bed.

“What?”

“Nothing, go back to sleep. I’m better now.” She was skeptical, but when Geoff offered no more words, she turned over and went back to sleep. After hearing soft snores, Geoff found his phone and sent out a quick text.

“Got them. Talk tomorrow.”

____________________

In his small guesthouse, Gavin poked his head out from under his wing at the sound of his phone. He read the text and sighed. He often thought deeply at night, but the last two days Gavin had been focusing on his memories, trying to figure out how similar and different the two worlds in his head were. But what scared him was how if he focused on his memories of one universe if he focused on the memories from one universe too much, the other one’s seemed to fade away until he called them back. Gavin didn’t want to lose who he was. He didn’t want to forget everything that he knew.

____________________

Michael laid with Lindsay in their bed, tails somehow twined together and her head resting on his chest. He had gotten the text from Geoff, and was thinking about this world and what it was doing to him. He had urges. He liked fish more, he felt the need to his and claw at things. He had a particularly vivid memory from this universe where Gavin and Geoff got a laser pointer and had him climbing over desks and chairs and even partially up the wall chasing after the demon light all against his better judgment. The avian hybrid didn’t come back into the office the next day in fear. Michael wanted to go home. He wanted to be normal again.

____________________

Ray hated this universe. He was jumped, skittish and easily startled. This wasn’t him. He had been playing Call of Duty online and every time he got shot or died or heard an explosion, he jumped about a food in the air, his ears pressed against the back of his head. It was unnerving to be this jumpy. Jack had yawned, and Ray had bolted out of the room and under the reception desk. He was never like this in his normal universe.

____________________

Jack was alone tonight. Caiti was in Australia and wouldn’t be home for a few weeks. He was laying on his stomach, reading their texts, thinking about their relationship in both worlds. His instincts wanted her to cuddle with, arms wrapped around each other, sleeping happily. He didn’t know how to felt in this universe. He craved red meat more than normal, sometimes ate it not even cooked, he fought the urge to nap or even to roar, noticing the way that some of the others around the office flinched or jumped when he did so. He didn’t like being feared. He didn’t think he was scary; his wife called him a big cuddly goofball. He just wanted to go back to be the loveable beard guy, not the scary lion.

____________________

Ryan was sitting in his living room, Eli laying on his chest, breathing softly as he slept, a pair of monkey ears sticking up from his head and tail wrapped around his waist. It still was surprising to Ryan that his son was a monkey; his daughter sported a pair of horse ears and tail, while his wife was a fox. It was also surprising how quickly he adapting to being part bull. How his tail naturally swayed behind him. But it was also nerve racking. He couldn’t live here, with the hassles of horns and tails and animal instincts. He wanted to just be the Mad King, not Edgar.

____________________

So, with all minds thinking alike, the office was ready to move through a door, any door to try and get home.

“Which door?” Geoff asked into the mic; they figured they might as well record it, to see if the recording would cross over universes.

“Well, we came through the first door. Let’s try door four.” Ray said. Cursor moved. Door was opened and the screens went black.

“What the hell? It looks normal!” Michael said, looking at the office on the screen.

“Maybe we’re back?” Jack suggested, putting down his controller. There were shrugs and Geoff saved before the timer appeared on screen, still 48 hours.

“We can’t know till morning. Might as well keep testing the recording theory.”

So they recorded a few videos, edited stuff, trying to kill time until the day was over and they could wake up somewhere else.

And that’s just what they did.

Gavin woke up first, feeling very warm. He turned his head, only to find a head pressed against his shoulder, that looked very familiar, and another pair of arms wrapped around his waist.

Wait, head?

ARMS?!

Gavin let out a yelp and jumped out of the bed, thank god he was wearing pants. The person who was snuggling him was pulled off the bed and groaned.

It was Michael, “Geez, Lindsay, what the-“ The red head trailed off as he noticed the person who had pulled him to the floor.

“Gavin?! What the fuck!” He yelled getting to his feet.

“Why the fuck are we yelling?” Another voice groaned, sitting up groggily, hand running through dark hair.

“Geoff?” Gavin asked. As the Brits voice caught the older man’s ears, he sprang from the bed, dressed only in a pair of boxers. The last three people in the large bed stirred, waking before the two bigger ones, who happened to be Jack and Ryan, looked at each other before bolting to opposite sides of the room.

“Will you all be quiet! My head is killing me!” Ray said, sitting up slightly against the headboard, head in hands.

“Ray,” Geoff said slowly, “Tell me you know why we’re all here…” The ‘ in one bed all practically naked’ was implied. Ray didn’t answer, instead started to curl into himself. Jack was the first to move back onto the bed, though all five men felt the tug to wrap their arms around the youngest of their group. Jack pulled Ray into his arms, and the younger man gladly leaned into the embrace. When Ray finally relaxed, he looked up at Jack and game him a soft peck on the bearded cheek. The older man blinked before jumping away. Ray was utterly confused before he groaned and covered his head with a pillow.

“I don’t understand this universe! What the hell is going on!” Geoff said loudly, sounding very nervous.

“We’re in a relationship.” Came a muffled reply.

“What?!”

“Yes! Like in a fucking six-way gay relationship!” Ray yelled, lifting his head, face as red as it could get.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Michael said, sitting down on the floor heavily. Before it could register to either of them, Gavin was kneeling next to the red head, hand rubbing circles into his shoulders.

“It’ll be okay love.” He said softly.

“What about our wives? Kids!” Geoff asked, mind thinking to Griffon and his daughter.

“Um, well, about that…” Ray looked toward the door, two children were standing hands rubbing tired eyes.

“Papa, why are you all yelling?” The little girl said, head had to be around five or six.

Ray got up from the bed and picked up the boy into his arms, “We forgot you all were sleeping in like lazy heads.” He said, taking the girl’s hand.

“Papi, that doesn’t answer why you all were yelling.” She protested, pouting.

“We were just picking on each other, like we always do.” Ray smiled, the little boy wrapped his pudgy arms around Ray’s neck.

“Hungy Papi!” He said, pouting.

“Alright, alright, let’s get you two some breakfast.” As Ray lead the two children away, silence fell over the room.

“What…”

“The…”

“Fuck…”


	4. Chapter 3

As Ray got the two kids ready for the day, the other five tried to figure out exactly what was going on.

“So, we’re all in a relationship. Have at least two kids, who we probably adopted, and still work at Rooster Teeth.” Jack said, compiling information found through phones and other papers laid around the room.

“So Cassie and James are eating, and Benjamin is still sleeping.” Ray said, walking into the bedroom only to have a pair of jeans and a tee shirt being thrown at his face.

“Get dressed.  We don’t want to see your skinny ass.” Michael said.

“You’d be surprised about that.” The Puerto Rican shuddered slightly, memories flooding back into his head.

“So we have three kids?” Geoff asked. 

“Yeah.  Adopted. As for as I know, we’ve always been gay. Like maybe one of you is bi or dated a girl or something but yeah.”  Ray said sitting down on the bed, pilling his tee shirt over his head.

“Oh, and I’m Padre, Michael is Daddy, Geoff is Dad, Ryan is Pop, Jack is Papa and Gavin is Dada or Da.” Ray said answering the unasked question. 

“This is going to be hard…” Geoff groaned. 

“Da?” All heads turned to look at the door, where a small boy no older than three hugging a worn stuffed creeper tightly.

Gavin kneeled in front of the small boy, “Yes love?”

“I’m hungy! Cassie and James eating now!” Benjamin, as they learned, was speaking with a clear English accent.

“Well then, let’s get something in your tummy!” Gavin said, picking up the small boy and looking back as Ray for help.

“How about we all get something to eat.” Ray said, grabbing Geoff and Michael’s hands, pulling them to the kitchen. 

“Papa! When are we going to the zoo? You promised we could go today!” Cassie jumped up and down in front of Jack.

“Padre! Can you help me with an achievement!” A smaller voice called from the living room.

For the next hour or so the six fell into a natural rhythm.  Geoff helped Gavin feed Benjamin, Jack and Ryan playing with Cassie and Michael and Ray with James. As Ben was eating, Geoff looked through some papers that could indicate they used any sort of babysitter. 

“Ray!” Geoff called to the younger man. There was a small whine and then padding of feet.  Ray walked into the kitchen, James hanging upside down over the Puerto Rican’s shoulder.

“Padre! Put me down! I wanna play with Daddy!” James said, small firsts beating against the small of his Padre’s back.

“Who do we use as a babysitter?” Geoff asked quietly.

“We take them to work, and they run around but mostly Lindsay and Barbara watch them when we’re recording and stuff.”

“Can we call them up, we need to talk.”

Ray nodded, turning around so Geoff could set James down on his feet.

“Aunt Lindsay and Aunties Barbie are going to watch us?” Cassie asked, grabbing a juice box from the fridge, “Will they take us to the zoo?”

“If you all ask nicely.” Gavin said, coming back into the kitchen with a dressed Benjamin.

“Yay! Zoo!” Ben squirmed in his Da’s arms, wanting to run around with his siblings. 

Around ten minutes later, Lindsay came to pick up the kids, Geoff bullshitting an excuse of cleaning the house without them around. Lindsay apparently had excellent timing as just as the car pulled out of the drive way, Gavin curled into the couch, memories flooding into his head. 

“Okay, so we have three sets of memories now, or are going to at least.” Geoff said, sitting down on one of the couches in the living room.  Ray was rubbing circles on Gavin’s back, and the other three found places to sit around the room.

“Yeah. Looks like it. What’s the story Ray?” Jack asked, noticing that Gavin had started to uncurl himself from around the pillow.

“Here’s the deal.  Geoff and Jack got together first. Griffon is like your best friend, and you were her sperm donor so Millie still exists and stuff. After you two started Achievement Hunter, things were going pretty well, and that was around the time Gavin first came over from England.  He admitted he liked Geoff, but you turned him down because of Jack and the age difference.” 

“But I am a persistent lad if I do say so myself,” Gavin said, smirking slightly, “So I convinced Jack and we had a long distance things going on before I got a good visa.”

“So that was three.  Ryan was next, when he got hired, Jack convinced him to go out on a Skype date with Gavin. And around this time Michael and I got together before either of us got hired.”

“Yeah, I came back then Michael moved here and we all hit it off, but he was hesitant because he and Ray were still together. But then Ray got hired and it just kinda happened.”  Gavin finished off the story with a nod. 

“What about the kids?”  Jack asked, absentmindedly running his hand through Michael’s hair.

“They are official adopted by the Gents, but the agency knew what kind of home they were going to.  It’s James Haywood, Cassie Ramsey, and Benjamin Pattillo.” Gavin answered.

“Why does he have English accent?” Ryan commented. 

“Picked it up from me, and I think he parents were immigrants.” 

“Roost Teeth…everything okay there? I mean, I know we still work there but…”  Geoff asked quietly.

“Yup. Everything’s good.  We came out to the company right before we adopted Cassie, but we’re not public with the Internet.”  Ray answered.

Just then there was a crash from the kitchen and the five noticed that Michael was not longer sitting next to Jack. 

When had he moved? 

“Fuck!”  There was a quick scramble to get to the kitchen to see Michael, hand under the faucet, and water running over a nasty cut across his palm.  There was a shattered glass on the floor and one big shard on the counter.  Michael’s head was resting against the sink, eyebrows knitted together in pain. 

“Glass slipped. Head made me cut my hand.” He muttered as Ray went to get the first aid kit.  Jack and Geoff cleaned the mess while Ray cleaned Michael’s hand.

“Well, what do we do?” Jack asked as the six of them were seated back in the living room. 

“It’s Saturday now, and that means we have until Monday to try and muddle through this universe.”

“This is gonna be hell.”  Geoff said, handing a bottle of beer to Jack and Ryan. 

“What do the kids do during the week?” Jack asked, taking a sip of the beer.

“I told Geoff, but Cassie goes to school, and James and Benjamin come to work with us and run around bugging people and stuff. Burnie dotes on them the most, and they surprising enjoy spending time with Joel.”

“Well that’s scary.” Ryan commented.

“Says the Mad King.” Michael snickered. 

The boys then fell into a natural routine, the Lads playing each other in a couple rounds of Peggle, Jack and Ryan finding laptops to just dig around and Geoff enjoying his beer, watching his boys.

What felt like too soon, they heard the door open with a shout of “Hey boys! We’re back!”  Followed by the sound of three little children running through the hall to see their fathers.

“Daddy! Guess what! We saw a bear! It was Mogar!” James climbed onto Michael’s lap, bouncing up and down happily.

“Mogar? No, Mogar wouldn’t be in the zoo! No zoo could hold the Mighty Mogar!” Michael smiled and began tickling the boy in his lap.

“No! No! Mighty Mogar! Someone save me!” James squealed, squirming in his Daddy’s lap.

“Did you hear that Vav? A cry for help! This looks like a job for X-Ray!” Ray jumped up, hands resting on his hips, chest out.

“And Vav!” Gavin struck the same post.

“And the amazing Cassandra!” Cassie jumped up next to Ray and Gavin, mimicking their pose.

Thus the Great Tickle War of 2014 commenced. It wasn’t long before the Mad King was called in for back up, with his side kick the Mad Prince Ben. Geoff and Jack some how managed to not be pulled into the fray and had glasses of milk and water waiting when a truce was called.

It was about now that Ben and James began yawning, hands rubbing eyes and protests of naps being made but Jack and Ryan managed to get both boys into bed, cuddling their favorites toys. Cassie decided to stay in her room for a bit, and finish her homework for the weekend. 

“So, Mad King Ryan?” Michael asked, switching his water for a beer.

“Yes, Mighty Mogar?” Ryan clinked their bottles together.

“I can’t believe little Ben has been corrupted by the Mad King! How did we let this happen X-Ray?!” Gavin exclaimed laying across Michael and Ray’s laps.

The Gents were surprised to see that they just let him, arms draping over the lanky body, Ray absentmindedly stroking the wild sandy brown hair.

“So, we need to get out of this universe as quickly as possible.” Geoff said, with two ‘yups’ as a reply.

“Who knew the Lads were going to be such good father’s?” Jack commented.

“Oi! We’re the fun Dads thanks you! You guys are the stuffy ones!” Gavin squawked from the other couch, having sat up.

“Yeah, but we never pegged you all for wanting to be parents.  Maybe Michael after a few year, but not anytime soon.” Jack said.

“Yeah, well, a relationship with five guys, the prospect of children is kinda slim.” Ray said, not looking away from the television where he had started a mission in Call of Duty.

Silence fell among the group besides the sounds of the television.  It seemed like hours before anyone spoke again.

“Hey Lads? Why aren’t you all fighting the instincts, like you did in the last universe?”  Ryan asked, eyeing the way Gavin was resting his head on Michael’s shoulder, and how their hands were intertwined.

“Um, it’s less instincts more natural?” Ray answered as the other Lads noticed what Ryan was referring to and jumped away from each other.

“Yeah.  The weird stuff was wanting to scratch at everything.” Michael said, before heading to the kitchen for another beer.

“True.  But you didn’t even notice what you were doing until Ryan asked about it.” Jack said. 

“You can’t tell me you don’t want to cuddle with Ryan or me, I know you’re a big cuddler.” Ray teased, smirking as the ginger bearded man choked on his beer.  The teasing continued throughout the evening, while the Gents cooked dinner and the Lads readied the kids.

“Dad! Who gets to pick the movie tonight?” James asked as the table started being cleared and leftovers put away. Gavin nudged Geoff, who didn’t respond when James asked him.

“Oh, who picked last time?” 

“Pop did!”

“Well, how about you pick tonight.”

“Aw! No fair!”  Geoff sighed, resisting the urge to hit Ray and Gavin upside the head when their voice joined Ben and Cassie’s. 

“Yay!”  James ran off to the living room, pulling up Netflix and searching for a movie. 

Thankfully, the kids had all scoped out their places for the movie, when Jack grabbed Geoff’s shoulder tightly, face emoting his obvious pain.  Geoff put his arm around the bearded man’s shoulder as the memories set into his head.

Once Jack nodded that he was okay, the two joined the rest of the family in the living room, plopping down in the open spaces. James ended up picking a family comedy, and about half way through all three children were out like a light. The Lads put them to bed before heading to their own room, changing into tee shirts and boxers and crawling into bed. 

“Um, Ryan, do you want to sleep on the couch tonight?” Geoff suggested, watching Jack slip into the bed at the edge of the bed, Gavin curling into the Gent. 

“Right behind you.” Ryan said as the two older men went back down stairs and settled on the couch.

“So…this is weird.”

“Yup.”


	5. Extra Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I’m a bit stuck on the main plot, and this idea just jumped out at me . This does not occur in plot of the story, and therefore won’t be referenced after this chapter, but I love this AU and it didn’t exist when I was first planning everything. So enjoy Michael from the streets! Based on yetiokay’s AU.

This universe seemed normal.  Everything seemed normal, but he knew it wasn’t. For one thing, he noticed several extra scars and tattoos that littered his upper body, and the fact that he didn’t have a bed, just a mattress on the floor.  Not to mention the absence of his fiancé.  So when Michael came to work and the first thing Ray did was give Michael a hug, he knew something about this universe was extremely wrong.

"Ray. Why are you hugging?" The muddy red-headed asked as the Puerto Rican in question held on tighter.

"This universe sucks. I’m so sorry. Just really sorry. Sorry we didn’t find you sooner." Ray kept babbling, muttering sorry and holding onto Michael tightly.

"Ray, you need to let us know what’s going on." Ryan said, helping Jack pull off the now shaking Ray off Michael.

"It’s not mine to say this time." He whispered, locking eyes with Michael.

Great.

This universe had fucked him over some how, and if it shook Ray that much, he didn’t really know what to expect.

Later, when Gavin Gained his memories, the Brit could only stare at Michael in shock.

"God Michael. I’m so sorry. So bloody…" Michael was starting to freak out.

What the hell was wrong with him in this universe?

He was dead scared when the headache overtook him. Memories flooded into his head.

Drunk father. Druggie mother. Out on the streets. Starving. Fighting. Gangs, drugs, guns, scars, death.

Blood.

So much blood.

Michael’s eyes shot open and he bolted from the office, chest heaving to gain breath.

The guys had pulled him off the streets of Jersey. He lied, stole and even killed.

He was having a mental breakdown.

"Michael." Gavin gently knocked on the bathroom down," Open the door please."

When did he lock himself in?

Michael reached up slowly and unlocked the door.  Gavin and Ray shuffled in and shut the door behind them.  All three sat in the small space in silence.

"I…I-" Michael started to speak but Ray cut him off.

"We saved you. We said you could start a new life and you did. It’s been three years. You haven’t done drugs, you haven’t fought and you haven’t gone back in three years." Michael nodded, knees tucked against his chest.

"I still did all those things in this universe. I remember them. It’s so fucking scary.  I’ve killed people. I remember that." He muttered, hugging his knees tighter.

"Honestly, it’s not going to be okay Michael." Gavin said slowly, "But as long as you never do it again, all always be there for you. This universe and our own."

"Thanks guys."

Ray smiled, “Team Lads?”

Michael gave a weak smile, “Team Lads.”

It took a few more minutes before Michael was ready to head back to the office.  Ray and Gavin were supporting him the entire walk back to the office and as the three Gents watched the Lads come back.  Jack was up and pulled Michael into a bone crushing hug.

"I’m so sorry Michael. I-I-" Jack tried to speak, but words failed him.  He had obviously gained his memories when they were out.

"It’s okay Jack." Michael took a deep breath.

"Michael, it’s okay if you don’t want to tell us but…" Geoff started.

"No, no. You need to know. " So the six men sat down and Michael told them his story in this universe. No one interrupted him as he talked.  He even told them things this universe’s Michael hadn’t hold them before.  When he was done, Ryan and Geoff were speechless.

"Michael. You didn’t do any of that. A version, this version of you did, but our Michael didn’t. Don’t let this eat you up." Geoff said finally.

"It’s hard Geoff. It’s really hard." The younger whispered.

"I know, but we’ll be out of here soon. We all have memories of things we regret, but the thing about these are is that you didn’t do them." Geoff put an arm around Michael’s shoulder, and pulled him into a side hug, the younger man leaned into the embrace and nodded.

"Well, might as well get to recording, then I say we go out somewhere and talk." The group agreed, and Michael’s past turned into a conversation for later.

After a day of recording, with no real big events to comment on, Geoff took the group out for drinks, alcoholic or not; his treat.

Who would say no to that?

So there they were, six guys sitting in a booth, drinking and talking, trying to figure out their lives for the last couple weeks, bouncing from universe to universe; memories swimming around in their heads, when it all stopped.

Four men, armed and willing to use them, burst through the doors.

"Everybody down! No sudden movements!" Screams started, people beginning to run and panic but as soon as the sound of gunshots ran out through the bar, silence swept over them

"Like we said! Everybody down!" The six hunters moved with the crowd, moving around their table and moved to the center floor, sitting down.

Michael was watching the gunmen.  The one calling orders was the obvious leader, but the way all of them were handling the guns and the situation lead Michael to believe that this was not something they did on a daily basis.  He ordered them, from weakest to strongest.  The universe’s memories flooded into his head, plans were made to make sure he and the rest of the guys made it out of there alive.

Just as he was about to move, Michael felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Ryan, who mouthed ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’ Michael just shrugged and turned back to the commotion.

The leader and the buffest guy were getting the staff to gather all the money; the other two who were guarding the rest of them were obviously nervous, sweating, pacing and whispering back and forth. Michael knew his best chance was to get those two down within a couple minutes of each other, neither of them would have he balls to shoot right away. The other two however, would.

The timetable ran through his head. Down the closest guy, disarm the gun, repeat, get a phone, call the cops, stall the other two for the cops to get here, don’t let anyone get hurt. Yeah that was the plan. Whether or not he’d be able to do it was another story.

Okay, now or never.  Michael shifted his weight, ready to spring up as the gunmen paced around them again. He was up in a second, grabbing the guy by the collar and landing a knee to the gut, ripped the gun from his hands and brought the guys head to his knee. Dropping the now unconscious robber, Michael pulled apart the gun with skilled hands and made his way quickly over to the other guy.

"Hey, get back down or I’ll shoot!" Michael stared him down, shaky stance, sweaty palms.  He crossed the short distance between them in two strides before the robber could blink and grabbed the barrel, twisting the gun out of his hand and landing a blow to the back of his neck with the butt. Taking a shaky breath, Michael disassembled the gun and grabbed Geoff’s phone, tossing it to the Gent.

"Call 9-1-1. Plan is to distract the other two long enough for them to get here." Michael said quickly, moving behind the bar to look for any sort weapon.

"Michael, please just come back-" Gavin started before the other two gunmen came back to the front.  Geoff quickly hid the phone, turning it off.  Michael quickly grabbed a bottle, slowly uncapping it.

"What the fuck happened? Who did this?" The leader turned to Michael, who was still behind the bar, "What the fuck are you doing? Get out here, hands up!"

Michael took a few slow steps before taking the bottle in his hand and flinging it at their faces, vaulting over the bar and using his momentum to try and get the guns out of the picture. He was lucky with his aim, nailing one guy in the eyes with the liquor, who screamed, dropping the gun to cover his eyes, and the other with the heavy glass bottle, who stumbled, but held steady mostly.  Michael went after the dropped gun, tripping the still screaming man and nailing him in the gut and throat before aiming at the other who was getting back to his feet.

"Drop it or your dead!" He yelled.  Michael stared him down from his position on the floor.

"Listen man, drop it, and disarm it and you don’t have to get hurt. The cops are gonna be here soon, and it’d be in your best interest to be charged with armed robbery, not murder." Michael said calmly, his voice hint on threatening.

"Drop it!" Michael’s gaze didn’t waver.

"I don’t want to shoot you. I really don’t." The robber glared and tightened his grip on the gun as Michael slowly stood up, leveling the barrel at his chest.

Just then sirens began blaring, their gaze broke just for a second before Michael surged forward, his gun dropping and getting a grip on the robber’s. They fought for a moment, before the police burst into the bar.

"Freeze! Put the gun down!"

Michael backed away, but they were caught in an awkward struggle and-

BANG!

The first gun shot was followed by several others as Michael and the gunman fell to the floor.

"Michael!" The guys immediately rushed to the Jersey boy’s side. Michael had both hands pressed against his right thigh, he was obviously in pain however he didn’t show any other signs of being hurt.

"Michael, your leg." Jack moved Michael’s hands to use his own.

"You are such a fucking idiot! Why the hell would you do that!" Geoff whispered angrily.

"Instincts and memories took over. Protect those who protected me." Michael mumbled.

"Very noble, but still stupid." Geoff and the others backed away as several EMTs ran over and pulled Michael onto a gurney. Geoff managed to get the EMTs to allow him to ride with them to the hospital and Ryan drove the others in Geoff’s car.

Michael wasn’t in terrible shape, but he still went in for surgery to make sure his leg was okay. Around two hours later he was in recovery, and being questioned by the police. Two weeks later he was being hailed as a hero, but more and more questions were being asked of him.

How did he do it? How did he know how to take apart the guns? What the hell was he thinking?

So, for the first time since he came to Austin, Michael with the help of Burnie, and Geoff, sat down in front of the entire office his past. Surprisingly, everyone took it in stride, even with some laughter after Blaine called out that he won the betting pool.

And life went on, until the guys remembered that they weren’t actually from this universe and had to finish the game to get home. Yeah, so everything wasn’t as hunky-dory as they thought.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been reading tons of fanfiction recently with tons of different AUs and the idea of the AH guys finding themselves in them all just seemed fun!


End file.
